If this were a trip to Zimbabwe or the West Indies, Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have been available: Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has stated that the talismanic Indian batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have been available if the series were a trip to Zimbabwe or the West Indies instead of Australia.

For the unversed, both Kohli and Rohit have been included in the ODI squad for the forthcoming three-match series against Australia, Down Under, starting on October 19. Interestingly, Shubman Gill has replaced Rohit as the new ODI captain.

Furthermore, Gavaskar also asserted that since India lost to Australia in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 final in Ahmedabad, the duo thought of being available for the forthcoming series. He also felt that it would be a bit tough for them to remain fit and stay in form with very limited ODIs being played ahead of the ICC ODI World Cup 2027.

"I am pretty certain that if this were a trip to Zimbabwe or the West Indies, both of them wouldn’t have been available. But because this is in Australia and because India lost to Australia in the World Cup final, maybe that is the reason why both of them have decided, yes, I want to be available for this," Gavaskar said to India Today.

"It depends to a great extent on the number of one-day matches that India plays over the next couple of years. Look, it isn’t easy to be playing just seven or eight ODIs in a season while preparing for something as big as a World Cup," he added.

India’s ODI squad for the Australia series: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.

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